Feb. 1, 2010 issue
Haitians hold fast to faith after quake
By Bob Braun Religion News ServicePage:
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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Did God abandon Haiti?
No, say its people of faith — and there are many here in a place without much beyond faith. The earthquake was a sign of God’s presence.
So, it should be no surprise that on a narrow street choked by debris, outside a church with a shattered ceiling open to the morning sky, what was left of the congregation of Haiti’s Second Baptist Church stood in a courtyard and waved their hands in the air and shouted, “Victoire! Victoire!”
Victory.
Pastor Simeon Vilneus based his sermon on Matthew 24, when Jesus was asked how long the temple in Jerusalem would stand. “I tell you,” Jesus answered, “not one stone here will rest upon another. Every one will be thrown down.”
And the men and women, dressed in suits and dresses, rescued and cleaned from the relentless dust, heard that and shouted, “Alleluia! Alleluia.”
They should be happy, they should smile, Vilneus told them. What happened Jan. 12 was not an example of God’s absence, but rather proof that he is coming back soon. Proof that the good people of Haiti will be the first to welcome him because they suffered first.
Vilneus reminded his people that Jesus also said:
“There will be famine and earthquakes … and all this will be the beginning of birth pains.”
In the Haiti after the cataclysm of the 7.0-magnitude earthquake, hope is found in the idea that indescribable destruction and death must be proof its people are on the threshold of salvation. God, they say, has chosen Haiti of all places as the nation where the end times, the end of the world, will begin.
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